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My Website Design, Please Comment..

Hi guys , I have been reviewing couple of threads here & i feel its the most supportive & ideas sharing medium here. I just need to inform everybody about my new web dev company, we have designed a website for it & like your ideas & comment on the outlook as wellas what more can be added to publicize my site so i generate lots of Traffic, also I wud like to get some more marketing ideas.

I had purchased the WEB DESIGN BUSINESS KIT 2 weeks back & feel the ideas provided are helpful but to start from scratch you need to attract clients first,

Hi guys , I have been reviewing couple of threads here & i feel its the most supportive & ideas sharing medium here. I just need to inform everybody about my new web dev company, we have designed a website for it & like your ideas & comment on the outlook as wellas what more can be added to publicize my site so i generate lots of Traffic, also I wud like to get some more marketing ideas.

I had purchased the WEB DESIGN BUSINESS KIT 2 weeks back & feel the ideas provided are helpful but to start from scratch you need to attract clients first,

waiting for all your xpert comments

By the way , My web site address is www.tritondxb.com, Please also download the free wall clock for your desktop, thnx harry

What is your goal with the web site? If it is to show prospects that you exist and are a real business, the site works. It's professional, and conveys a solid image. Good start for a new business!

However, if your goal is to attract prospects, the site doesn't work -- much as most web design sites don't work. Here's why:

1. It's all about you. You haven't identified a target market, shown that you understand their issues, and demonstrated that you can solve their issues better than anybody else (other than with a list of assertions that everyone else makes). Instead, you talk about what your company does and why you think it is good. As a result, the copy is a bit generic.

2. There's no offer for valuable information, articles, insights, assessments, or anything else that would get me to contact you or want to hear from you in the future. I'd recommend writing some educational pieces that show your expertise, and results. You can then send these to prospects you want to work with, and ask for their advice. It's a great way to start building relationships.

3. While your portfolio is good, consider adding other forms of proof of your work and expertise -- case studies and testimonials (right on first page) especially.

4. The "Why Us?" page is okay but could be stronger. I'm still not clear on your edge vs. the competition. What sets you apart that matters to me? For instance, do you offer a guarantee that no competitor can match? A methodology that allows you to get results faster and cheaper than anybody else? Experience in a specific market that sets you apart? A solution that goes deeper and/or broader than other web designers? I'd like to see you have fewer features/words but be bolder and more specific -- with proof in the form of testimonials or case studies from your recent projects.

5. It would be great to have a page with your picture, and the story of how you came to start this business. Small personal touches can make a nice difference.

6. Sometimes the copy is too long. Break it up with sub-heads that are compelling and get people to read more.

7. Give people a reason to leave their contact info, such as a newsletter, free assessment of their web presence, or free report. That way you can follow up with them and keep establishing credibility. It takes someone 4-5 interactions before they hire a professional; your current web site will generate one, maybe two interactions at most.

A 'professional' website which is either 100% Flash, or 'html' pages in encrypted coding - within frames?

This seems so naive or amateurish that I can only assume I'm missing something...

Not even a set of meta tag keywords, or a list of words used in the Flash movie? This seems an impressively dismissive evaluation of search engines. Perhaps you design sites for a rare breed of client. Or maybe I'm lagging behind in search engine optimisation of websites.

Not that there are that many pages to sift through, but Flash and frames ensure even those there are can't be bookmarked / added to favorites, or linked to specifically.

Surely these aspects neglect basic - and I do mean elemetary (or even rudimetary) - elements of site design?

From a design POV, I suspect the people photos look like stock images, which can convey pretence - that the site's a fiction - and wishful thinking... If they aren't, then maybe it'd be better to try to avoid such a generic style.

I don't understand this site. It looks to me as though there's real skill and talent being heedlessly wasted here... I really won't mind if someone can explain why I'm mistaken!

Im not a big fan of flash but I know its intended more towards interactive infaces. Your company profile would be best (in my opinion) in HTML rather then both. I can understand giving new clients the option to view your website in flash but really unless your sole business model is flash I see it as double work for you.

Kill the frames too, they suck. This is 2004, not many people are using 640 x 480 screen res sizes anymore, expand your website and grow to todays standards.

I wouldn't say that frames automatically are bad/wrong/evil ... but generally speaking, yes I would say that there's no real reason to use them ... and I would agree that using them here is not a good idea.

While overall I really like the overall look & color scheme of the site (there's obvious talent being shown here), instead of having separate Flash and HTML designs, you could combine them and eliminate frames. Create a dynamic template to get rid of the frames and plug the content into each page. You could use Flash for your top menu to show off your Flash skills.

re your current pages ... on the Portfolio page, the secondary menu is too tough to see (I missed it on the HTML pages, and only noticed it on the Flash page.) Additionally, it breaks a design rule by changing the three options available when you change pages. You may also want to add a title or description on the "Download" page to the clock so people know what it is ... I doubt you'll get many people downloading it as its listed now.

I'm not a designer - not by a long way, but I really like the logo and the use of colour on the site. That said, ther are a number of things on the site that don't look at all professional in my opinion.

Firstly: the splash screen. Splash screens are a waste of my time. Since all it does is present your logo and offer the choice between a Flash and an HTML version of the site there's no real reason to have it.

"Best resolution 1024 x 768 - Internet Explorer 5 or higher". This is just plain wrong for a whole bunch of reasons. It makes it look like you're stuck in a 1999 mentality of only supporting a small subset of the web. Today's web is far bigger than just one (outdated) browser and one resolution. Additionally, your site works just fine at 800x600 anyway due to the fixed width design.

I'd recommend ditching the Flash version. It provides exactly the same content as the HTML version but with the added limitations of Flash (no easy text resizing, can't be printed, kills various browser features). I also think the HTML version looks better. If you want to demonstrate your skills with Flash you'd be much better off building something in Flash that can't be easily done in HTML - a game, or an interactive map for example. Ditching the Flash version also helps with ditching the splash screen.

Frames / encrypting your HTML. Just don't do it. It's horribly inaccessible (in a world where website accessibility is becoming an important requirement for many clients) and imposes usability issues as well - not being able to bookmark pages for example.

As for content, I would recommend emphasizing your portfolio more. Every design company under the sun has boring copy explaining why you should go with them, but your previous work speaks says far more about the kind of problems you can successfully tackle.

I'd recommend changing the title on your index page as well to improve your search engine visibility.

thnx for being good judges

hi charles,

Thank you & everyone here who took out time to view my site, i appreciate everyones positive & honest response for my web site, the more flaws i hear from ppl the more easy it comes on me to modify or alter my site, i would still need to know more in detail about "usability" you mentioned.

Originally Posted by Charles Lim

Nice site.

Nice feel of the site but usability wasn't put at the first place (I think it should be).

(i) Hard to read text in Flash version. (due to the white square line behind the text)

(ii) Complicated background in Flash version. (different main color for background in different page)

(iii) Bad paragraphing, makes it very hard to read.(would be easier if put another separate line between paragraph)

(iv) Too much scrolling. Cut down as much scrolling as possible. May be separate them into different pages. ( i.e: Company page can separate into Mission, Philosophy .... , instead of cramming everything into single page)

thanx ed, i am confused that u cud not view the text well, i have checked in IE as well, anyways appreciate your interest in viewing my site, plss feel free to put any flaws if u find any so i can modify the defects,

Funny, a couple of posters mentioned sticking with the html version of your site. I gotta be honest, but I almost felt like throwing up after viewing your html version. It was really awful. Anyway, that's the effect it had on me after I had first viewed your ever-so solid flash version. I've probably seen better, but not many.

I suppose you could consider a slight compromise, in that rather than going with the splash screen you could start off with a proper html/css page, one that looks a far site better than you have right now, and placing a link on the html version to your flash site version. Don't know if that makes sense to you, but if you really can't live without one or the other then I guess it's worth another try.

thanx ed, i am confused that u cud not view the text well, i have checked in IE as well, anyways appreciate your interest in viewing my site, plss feel free to put any flaws if u find any so i can modify the defects,

cheers

This may well be my problem. I am not sure. I have these tired old eyes.

Your work is an inspiration and I do live in a glass house. Any comment I make please never take it as anything but a thought. Momentary, fleeting and some times OK but not necessarily.

Groovy With Envy

Originally Posted by harish25

Hi guys , I have been reviewing couple of threads here & i feel its the most supportive & ideas sharing medium here. I just need to inform everybody about my new web dev company, we have designed a website for it & like your ideas & comment on the outlook as wellas what more can be added to publicize my site so i generate lots of Traffic, also I wud like to get some more marketing ideas.

I had purchased the WEB DESIGN BUSINESS KIT 2 weeks back & feel the ideas provided are helpful but to start from scratch you need to attract clients first,

waiting for all your xpert comments

Great Site:

The preloader was just as informative as it should be, stunning graphics. I'm most impressed with the elastic transition. I'm hoping you'll provide me with a hint how this was done.

Reg : LOGO

I have received a lot of comments related to the functionality of my web site www.tritondxb.com.

The comments were very handy & informative as it has given me a boost to modify according to the expertese of people.

I did receive a lot of compliments on the color of my site & specially the LOGO. did i mention you guys that when you take the mouse over the logo on the flash site somthing happens, plss check it out for yourself & lemme know

4. Don't Disable Right Click!!!! It was cool when it came out, but it is not necessary in today's web. If people want your content, they will find a way to get it, plus that is a BIG Accessibility NO NO.

Web design, in my opinion, is not about coming out of college with their basic HTML courses and throwing together a page and saying your a professional webdesigner. There is alot involved. I have been lucky enough to have found Sitepoint about 1 1/2 years ago. Its made me soo much better.

You need to read up on where the web is going. The site you put up, though very visually nice, is coded poorly, to the standards that designers have today. This is where the XHTML and CSS come into play. I couldn't even view your source to check out all your code because you disabled right click and the VIEW > SOURCE just gives me a bunch of javascript.

Read up on separating the content appropriately as well. Use <hx> (the x meaning 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) like h3 tags.

Add some style to your fonts. Like I said, visually, your site looks nice, but there are things you can do to improve the user experience, and styling the text would definitly help.

Hi Harish.
As already mentioned by others, stunning graphics but..
not that userfriendly.

My recommendations woud be the following (some already mentioned thogh):

1) Enable right-click.
By having them disabled you also make sure that users using mousegestures gets frustrated. I never tried your site with Opera but for Firefox with mousgestures extensions i had the pop-up shown each time i tried to back a page.

2) No resolution recommendation.
Even if you site do look best at 1024*768, what user would actually change their settings? According to w3schools statics < http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp > your're targeting only 47% of the market by that statement. Also, alot of users have no idea of their resolution and will only get insecure or confused.

4) No browser recommendation
Pretty much the same reasons as for resolution. Make your site "best viewed with ANY browser"

3) Scrollers at right side of content
I also missed your scrollers for the flash-version, not only because of the color, but also you expect scrolling to made from the right side of the content.

4) Flash vs html
The flash-version do look better, but i don't see why anything other than your amusing logo (Yeah i like it) should be flashmade. Im sure you can make the scroller function with javascript.

5) Why frames?
div to the rescue!

Well, that was all my opinions for now!

oh btw i launched your site with Opera to see that mousegestures did work well with your site. Still though, not for Firefox.

God luck and hope you (as well as other readers) find all comments useful!
Tudor